Practice Questions Exam 2

Question 1

While you’re at class, the battery in your smoke detector
at home becomes too low, and so it signals the smoke
detector to put out a piercing beep exactly every 60
seconds. After enduring this for awhile, your dog, who
hates this sound, starts to flinch just before the beep
goes off. What is this an example of? Hint: notice that
there aren’t any other stimuli associated with the beep..
A) temporal conditioning
B) temporal coding
C) inhibitory conditioning
D) occasion setting

Answer 1

A) temporal conditioning

Question 2

You have a pet goat named Basil that lives in a barn
behind your house. Just before you feed Basil, you ring
a little bell that hangs outside the barn door. The bell
also rings sometimes if it happens to be breezy outside,
a bird runs into it etc. When you’re present and your goat
hears the bell, he comes running to the door. If you’re
not around and the bell rings, the goat does NOT run for
the door. What is this an example of?
* A) temporal conditioning
* B) temporal coding
* C) inhibitory conditioning
* D) occasion setting

Answer 2

D) occasion setting

Question 3

During a recent stay in the hospital, the buzzer on your
bed broke, and it put out an annoying buzzing sound
exactly every five minutes. After this happened for
awhile, you notice yourself starting to tense up just
before the buzzer goes of. What does this represent?
* A) temporal conditioning
* B) temporal coding
* C) inhibitory conditioning
* D) occasion setting

Answer 3

A) temporal conditioning

Question 4

You have a pet gerbil that lives in a spare room. Since
the gerbil belongs to your roommate, only he feeds the
gerbil. When you walk into the room, the gerbil never
gets fed. The gerbil tends to walk to the other side of the
cage from where he usually gets fed when you come in
the room. This is an example of:
* A) temporal conditioning
* B) temporal coding
* C) inhibitory conditioning
* D) occasion setting

Answer 4

C) inhibitory conditioning

Question 5

You’ve started feeding your cat a dehydrated meal. It
takes 10 minutes from the time you open the package to
the time you put the food on the floor. You notice that
your cat has started showing up in the kitchen exactly 10
minutes after she hears the sound of a package being
opened. This is an example of:
* A) temporal conditioning
* B) temporal coding
* C) inhibitory conditioning
* D) occasion setting

Answer 5

B) temporal coding

Question 6

In Sally’s junior high, a bell would ring to signify lunch.
Now, in high school, the same bell rings, and the
principal also plays the school theme song over the
intercom. One day while testing a new intercom system,
the lunch bell rang several times, and the theme song
played several times as well. Sally found herself
salivating a little when she heard the bell, but not when
she heard the theme song. What’s happening here?
* A) latent inhibition
* B) blocking
* C) overshadowing
* D) US preexposure

Answer 6

B) blocking

Question 7

In a zoo setting, when it’s time for food a monitor lizard
sees a bright light the keeper turns on in order to be able
to see, and it also hears the quiet click of the enclosure
door opening. When the monitor sees the light by itself it
salivates and becomes a little excited, but not when it
hears the click by itself. What’s happening here?
* A) latent inhibition
* B) blocking
* C) overshadowing
* D) US preexposure

Answer 7

C) overshadowing

Question 8

In an Australian zoo, a koala lived in an enclosure for
many years that had eucalyptus trees, and therefore
eucalyptus leaves (koala food) available all the time.
When the trees stopped producing leaves, a zookeeper
had to start delivering eucalyptus leaves to the koala.
Even after a few months, the koala still didn’t come to
associate (and become excited) the zookeeper with the
food. What’s happening here?
* A) latent inhibition
* B) blocking
* C) overshadowing
* D) US preexposure

Answer 8

D) US preexposure

Question 9

A girl brings a dog home from the shelter, and tries to get
it to associate the sound of a ”clicker” with food. After
many weeks of pairing a clicker with food, the dog still
wasn’t conditioning. What the girl didn’t know was that
the dog heard that same noise over and over in the
shelter, though it wasn’t paired with anything at that time.
Why is the dog taking so long to condition?
* A) latent inhibition
* B) blocking
* C) overshadowing
* D) US preexposure

Answer 9

A) latent inhibition

Question 10

Your dog had a bad experience at the vet, and is
now fearful while there. To help her get over it,
you bring her to the vet over and over while
nothing bad happens. She was starting to get
more comfortable when a few dogs started
barking loudly, which made her fear return.
What is this an example of?
* External inhibition
* Disinhibition

Answer 10

Disinhibition

Question 11

You’re training your dog to be comfortable
around a piece of agility equipment, so you have
her sit on the “pause table” while giving her
treats. She now gets noticeably excited and
sign tracks to the pause table. One time while
training, a stranger comes in looking for his keys.
During that trial, your dog does not sign track to
the table, and does not appear excited. What is
this an example of?
* External inhibition
* Disinhibition

Answer 11

External Inhibition

Question 12

You had gone to a bakery for a number of years
and gotten a treat once a week. The smell of
the bakery made you salivate. Then you get a
job there and are around the smells all day, but
aren’t allowed to eat anything. You gradually
stop salivating at the smell. One day, the bakery
lost power, and while in the dark you found
yourself salivating to the smell again. What is
this an example of?
* External inhibition
* Disinhibition

Answer 12

Disinhibition

Question 13

You have a crush on a boy at school, and he
started wearing a new body spray. You now get
a fluttery feeling whenever you smell it. One
day, you were out on the playground when a
fight broke out between some of the kids. Even
though you smelled the body spray at that time,
you didn’t get your usual fluttery feeling. Why?
* External inhibition
* Disinhibition

Answer 13

External Inhibition

Question 14

A friend of mine had a rough time in school (she was often beaten up before the teacher arrived), and as such, always got nervous when she walked into a classroom. Now, even though she’s an adult, she still gets a little nervous in classroom-like settings, like business presentations, and even movie theaters. What’s this called?
A) sensory preconditioning
B) spontaneous recovery
C) stimulus generalization
D) sign tracking

Answer 14

C) Stimulus Generalization: her fear of one thing generalized to another, similar situation.

Question 15

For a male stickleback fish, a wand was placed in his tank shortly before a receptive female was also placed in the tank. After a number of wand/female pairings, the male started to go up to the wand and do a fancy zig zag dance, even though this behavior had nothing to do with making the female appear. What’s this called?
A) sensory preconditioning
B) spontaneous recovery
C) sign tracking
D) external inhibition

Answer 15

C) Sign Tracking: the fish is approaching the “sign” that there will be a female soon, so “sign tracking”

Question 16

While conditioning sheep in the lab, researchers paired the compound stimulus of the smell of other sheep as well as a black square with food. When tested separately, it became clear that the sheep had conditioned quite well to the smell of other sheep, but not as well to the black square. What’s happening here?
A) overshadowing
B) blocking
C) latent inhibition
D) disinhibition

Answer 16

A) Overshadowing: the sheep find the smell of the other sheep naturally more important and interesting compared with a black square, so it’s overshadowing.

Question 17

Rats were conditioned when a tone and foot shock were paired. This caused rats to freeze. Then the tone was presented by itself over and over. The rats gradually stopped freezing. What is the rats’ reduced response to the tone called?
A) conditioned suppression
B) extinction
C) external inhibition
D) blocking

Answer 17

B) Extinction: this is simply the weakening of a conditioned response after the CS (conditioned stimulus) and US (unconditioned stimulus) are no longer paired, so extinction.

Question 18

In Pavlov’s lab, dogs were first conditioned to the sound of a tone paired with food. Then, the tone was presented by itself 20 times in a row. By the end of these extinction trials, the dogs had stopped salivating. However, when tested the next day, dogs still salivated somewhat to the tone. What’s going on here?
A) overshadowing
B) disinhibition
C) conditioned suppression
D) spontaneous recovery

Answer 18

D) Spontaneous Recovery: this is just a return of responding after a break in extinction trials.

Question 19

In a psychology lab, rats heard a tone, then got a bit of food. After awhile, they would run to the food hopper when they heard the tone. Next, rats saw a light flash, then heard the tone (no food during this part). After conditioning to the light and tone, rats would run to the food hopper when they saw the light, even though the light was never directly paired with food. What’s this?
A) blocking
B) latent inhibition
C) overshadowing
D) higher-order conditioning

Answer 19

D) Higher-Order Conditioning

Question 20

On a farm, the working dogs learned over the last few years to come to the house for food when they hear the dinner bell. Lately, the new house manager also yells “DINNER!” while ringing the bell. When some of the ranch hands stole the bell, the house manager tried to get the dogs to come in by yelling “DINNER!”. This didn’t work. When the ranch hands brought the bell back, the house manager rang it, and the dogs came back. Why didn’t yelling “DINNER!” work?
A) latent inhibition
B) blocking
C) overshadowing
D) higher-order conditioning

Answer 20

B) Blocking: previous conditioning experience with the bell blocked any additional conditioning with the yelling “dinner”.

Question 21

For a dog at an animal shelter, certain things indicated whether food was about to arrive. If a person walked by the dog’s enclosure, there was about a 10% chance food was on its way. If a person touched the bars of the enclosure, there was about a 50% chance of food. If a person actually touched the latch of the enclosure, there was a 90% chance the dog was getting food. As such, the dog would salivate most when a person touched the latch of the cage, less if the person just touched the bars, and only a little if a person just walked by. Why is this?
A) sensory preconditioning
B) relative validity
C) blocking
D) overshadowing

Answer 21

B) Relative Validity: different CSs (conditioned stimuluses) have different relatively validities with regard to the US (unconditioned stimulus).

Question 22

A zoo acquired a batch of new, exotic rodents, and the keepers there wanted to get the rodents to come running when they hear the click of the food hopper delivering food. This will allow for easier cleaning of their cages. After a few weeks, the keepers notice that the rodents aren’t conditioning very well, and don’t come running at the click, even though it’s been paired with food. What the keepers didn’t realize is that the rodents came from a research laboratory where they heard an identical click all the time, but in the lab, the click wasn’t paired with anything. Why aren’t the rodents conditioning?
A) overshadowing
B) relative validity
C) sensory preconditioning
D) latent inhibition

Answer 22

D) Latent Inhibition: the rodents already learned that the click meant no food…the click wasn’t paired with anything for a long time, then they had difficulty conditioning to it.

Question 23

You wanted to demonstrate acquisition and extinction to your little sister’s fourth grade class. You brought in a Skinner box with a rat in it, and showed how the rat would go to a light after the light had been paired with food a number of times. Then, you initiated extinction trials. After a number of extinction trials of pairing the light with no food, the rat stopped responding. However, during one of the extinction trials, one of the children in the class coughed really loudly. During this trial, the rat’s responding temporarily returned, and it went up to the light. Why did that happen?
A) external inhibition
B) disinhibition
C) latent inhibition
D) blocking

Answer 23

B) Disinhibition: the rat was going through extinction, and it’s response was being inhibited. the loud noise temporarily disinhibited the rat’s response.

Question 24

In Pavlov’s lab, sometimes researchers would ring a bell, then NOT give the dogs food. When the bell rings, these dogs salivate even less than usual. What’s going on here?
A) conditioned inhibition
B) conditioned suppression
C) latent inhibition
D) external inhibition

Answer 24

A) Conditioned Inhibition: this is just plain old NOT pairing a CS (conditioned stimulus) with a US (unconditioned stimulus), or conditioned inhibition.

Question 25

Thirsty rats in a Skinner box will normally approach and lick a water bottle 3 times per minute. After a tone is paired with a mild shock a number of times, however, the tone will cause them to only drink from the bottle 1 time per minute. What’s this called?
A) conditioned suppression
B) external inhibition
C) disinhibition
D) latent inhibition

Answer 25

A) Conditioned Suppression: the normal behavior of the animals is being suppressed.

Question 26

You’re trying to teach your dog to salivate like Pavlov’s dogs to a bell. Things were going great until your nosy little brother started spying on you. When you were testing your dog to see if she would salivate to the bell, your little brother made a loud farting noise at the same time you rang the bell. The dog didn’t show the amount of salivation you were expecting at this point in conditioning. What happened?
A) external inhibition
B) disinhibition
C) blocking
D) higher-order conditioning

Answer 26

A) External Inhibition: the external stimulus was applied during acquisition trials, and responding diminished somewhat–external inhibition

Question 27

You wanted to try an experiment like Pavlov, so you start ringing a little bell while giving your dog little dried liver snacks, which is the dog’s favorite treat. The goal is to get the dog to salivate when it hears the bell, but after a few weeks, you notice that the dog isn’t conditioning very well. What you failed to notice is that the huge container of liver treats you got the dog are stored on the bottom shelf of your pantry, and when you’re not looking, the dog has been helping itself to the treats. What’s happening here?
A) CS preexposure
B) US preexposure
C) latent inhibition
D) conditioned inhibition

Answer 27

B) US preexposure: the US (unconditioned stimulus) in this scenario is the liver treats.

Question 28

Two fraternal twin brothers are inseparable, and most kids in the class have come to associate one with the other. They’re somewhat different, however, with one brother being more of a lover, the other one more of a fighter. One day, the more aggressive brother picked on a boy in the class and stole his lunch money. Even though the other brother had nothing to do with the attack, the boy felt scared of the kinder, gentler brother because of his previous association with the mean brother. What’s this?
A) blocking
B) overshadowing
C) sensory preconditioning
D) latent inhibition

Answer 28

C) Sensory Preconditioning: the two brothers became associated together before any US (unconditioned stimulus) was introduced.